With the average Indian become more aware and conscious and with disposable incomes going up, the demand for skin, hair and beauty treatments is growing. Aesthetics is no more just a market for celebrities, but also the average Indian now. Laser treatments, anti-ageing treatments and those alike are gaining significance as the demand for beauty goes up.

Seeing the opportunity, stand-alone aesthetics brands are upping their game, planning pan-India expansion and even going global. One such brand is Tapovan Wellness. Tapovan offers treatments for anti-ageing, beauty etc and is aggressively looking at pan-India expansion starting this year. Wellness India spoke to Abhimanyu Suri, Marketing Director, Tapovan Wellness about the brand and its expansion plans. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Tell us about Tapovan.

Tapovan is a wellness clinic. We have signature treatments of wellness, anti-ageing and beauty. Our tagline is Shubhanga Karnam, which means complete body-part transformation. And, we believe that through the right kind of lifestyle guidance provided by us, along with using the state of the art technology that we have consolidated after exhaustive research, a person can achieve complete metamorphosis and become a beautiful individual by the end of the treatments.

These are machine-guided treatments, but all are FDA approved. The best brands in the industry manufacture our equipment.

How old is the brand?

We’ve been operating since the past 4 years. We’re looking for pan-India expansion from this year. We’ll be launching a 10,000 square feet facility in Greater Kailash Part 1 in Delhi.

Are you looking out for franchising? Tell us about your franchising model?

We are absolutely looking out for franchisees. Our franchising model consists of an investment of about Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore, we also have another model, which is a little below Rs 1 crore. The payback window is 2 to 2.5 years with the area requirement being around 1,000 sq ft.

Is there a particular quality that you’re looking for in your franchisees?

We obviously would like to be partners with like-minded individuals who have a passion for wellness and who share the same ethos in terms of wellness. We would want to hand our brand out to individuals who will deliver because protecting the brand is also important.

Is this a self-funded venture?

Yes, it is self-funded by us. We come from another sort of a business background. My mother is the lead doctor of the brand. She has had a passion for aesthetics and preventive medicine for a very long time. She has a background in gynaecology. However, after a certain period of time she wanted to follow her passion for aesthetic medicine and went into a fellowship to States and Germany and introduce the preventive model to the medical fraternity here. Because right now, most medicine is focused around being curative, whereas if you see in the West, a lot of medicine is preventive. That’s what we try and bring out in the market, to enable individuals to safeguard their health and become healthier individuals.

What kind of growth are you seeing for Tapovan in the next five years?

This is the year that we are taking things aggressively and head on. So we’re looking to become a pan-India brand and potentially even have global presence. We’re looking to open at least 10-15 clinics per year in the coming five years.

How do you see the Indian wellness industry?

I see it booming rather. I feel that as people have become more exposed and more aware of their health and with the rise of disposable incomes, people are bound to spend more on themselves. So, I feel the wellness industry is at a very exciting stage in India.

But I also feel, it’s misguided. There is not enough professionalism in the industry. So that’s why mainstream doctors are taking wellness seriously and bringing it out in the market.

What role do you think the policymakers need to play to organise the industry?

I feel there obviously need to be check-backs to make sure the treatments offered are safe. They have to make sure that anything which has a slight amount of risk is not put out there. There must be enough regulations to make sure that cheap machines are not used.

How easy/difficult is it to run a wellness brand in India?

It comes with its share of challenges. But I think now, especially in the major cities, people are very well informed and realise the need of keeping themselves healthy. Hence, I feel the market for wellness is already established, we need to be offering some sort of a signature service for the brand to be placed well in the market.

What’s your pricing strategy?

Most of our treatments have an average ticket price of around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000. But, when somebody buys a bulk package, there are discounts. We do come out with offers on and off based on the seasonal trend.

How do you go about marketing the brand?

We have used print media, we’ve used social media. We’ve got the maximum response through social media because more young people are now more aware of the need for wellness.